EspañolVenezuela will reportedly remain in Mercosur as long as the Democratic Charter — designed to allow intervention into a country whose democracy is failing — is not applied by the Organization of American States (OAS), according to President of Uruguay Tabare Vasquez.
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Vasquez defended his country’s decision to hand over the role of presidency of the economic bloc to Nicolás Maduro.
“Uruguay has a lot of respect for the rules of the bloc, which the country shares with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Venezuela, and is also open to dialogue with all countries,” he said in a statement.
Vasquez’s statements came in response to one of the biggest crises Mercosur has faced in a long time, as the majority of the members refuse to acknowledge Venezuela’s presidency. They claim the country has yet to comply with international agreements.
He said the question of whether to grant Venezuela the mandate remains up in the air: “There is dialogue at different levels: technical, advisors, chancellors and when the time comes, presidents.”
After six months chairing Mercosur, Uruguay announced two weeks ago it would end its mandate and hand over the post to Venezuela in accordance with internal rules.
So far, Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina have insisted Maduro’s administration should not assume the presidency of the bloc because in addition to violating internal agreements, it has also violated the human rights of Venezuelans.
Source:El Nacional